1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cleaning or sweeping apparatus and in particular, to brooms or applications where material is being removed by an apparatus. The present invention further relates to insert adjustments which can enhance the ease of use and cleaning capability of brooms.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The standard brush broom has two primary components. The first component is the head that comprises a rectangular piece of material usually made of wood that supports therein a multiplicity of bristles of fibers that extend transversely to the head. The second primary component of the brush broom is the handle which is usually a cylindrical pole that is rigidly although sometimes removably affixed to the top of the head in the manner which permits the brush broom to be pushed and pulled by the exertion of a force on the handle.
One significant problem with brush brooms especially when used in confined spaces is that the rigid nature of the connection between the handle and head causes difficulty in sweeping adjacent doorways, corners, tables, chairs and other areas where obstacles are placed on the floor. The edge of the broom head hits the obstacle straight on and then it is necessary to stop the sweeping action and reorient the push broom to avoid or go around the obstacle. In addition, if the force of the sweeping action is sufficiently strong, the head-on impact of the brush broom could cause damage to the object being hit inflicting injury to the operator or break the push broom handle. The reason for the damage is due to the moment between the handle and broom head length cause a fulcrum effect. To overcome this problem prior art has been developed to allow the brush broom to be flexible at the joint between the brush broom and pole handle. However, to effectively have a workable flexible brush broom, it must have stops to limit the amount of flex and the attachment must be rectangular in shape along the longitudinal axis to retain the rigidity in the longitudinal axis while being flexible in the lateral axis.
Prior art has been patented on mechanisms or attachments that allow for a flexible joint between the brush broom and broom handle. However, to date all prior art is either too costly to manufacture, due to the expense of springs and their installation into the broom head, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,506,996 and 4,785,489, or in the case of polymeric or polyurethane adapter U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,722,634 and 5,333,345, have excessive flex causing a wobble effect because the flexible attachments were not rectangular in shape and had no limit stops. The prior art allows the broom to have excessive lateral movement when in contact with a stationary object thus causing the contents to be swept, instead of being retained in the brush broom bristles, due to the excessive angle of the brush broom in relation to the broom handle. In addition, without stop limits, the prior art allows the flex member to go beyond the stress limit of the flexible insert material, causing the flexible membrane to crack and eventually break thus rendering it ineffective. In addition, the prior art flexible insert attachments are not rectangular in shape along the longitudinal axis which is critical to reduce stress to the flexible member yet allow for lateral movement and retain the rigidity in the forward and aft movements. The cylindrical attachment described in the prior art causes the flexible member to flex in both the lateral direction and longitudinal direction making the broom head unstable. In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 5,333,345 uses a polyurethane flexible material and requires flanges to be encapsulated into the polyurethane elastomer material, thus making the adapter cost prohibitive for residential and commercial brooms.
Therefore, a significant need exists to improve upon the previous patents and to allow for a flexible attachment to be made that is rectangular in shape and has limit stops, thus eliminating stress to the flexible apparatus yet limiting the wobble effect of a flexible mechanism/attachment both in the lateral and longitudinal axis. It is also desirable to manufacture a brush broom that is flexible so that comers, doorways and obstacles on the floor can be more easily negotiated when it is necessary to sweep adjacent or around them.